


Reverse

by birdPolice



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Body Horror, Humor, cindy is overwhelmed, gettin lit in club cowgate, inter dimensional monsters present and accounted for, the doctor crosses over to our universe, universe shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:27:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25409185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/birdPolice/pseuds/birdPolice
Summary: Cindy Williams is studying abroad in Scotland when she comes across a mysterious man with a mysterious blue box. Except it isn't mysterious at all, because he's the Doctor, and he's not supposed to be real.Or: what happens if the Doctor crosses over into our universe.
Kudos: 2





	1. the setup

Cindy's day was already somewhat of a dumpster fire before she started hallucinating. 

First she woke up late, jumped out of bed so fast she slammed into her desk, burned her forehead with her travel curling iron, and managed to lock herself out of their flat before running up the hill to class. 

She was, by all regards, supposed to be having fun. Which, she was. Mostly. She'd been in Edinburgh for two weeks or so, and had already made fast friends with the other girls in her flat— other students in the study abroad program, of course. It was summer, which *meant* that Cindy should have been at a beach, or something, but at that moment it meant she was trying not no wheeze her lungs out. 

The thing about Edinburgh was that it was full of hills. The rooms where the student classes were held were on the fourth floor of a building four or so blocks from the student flats. And it *was* the fourth floor, damnit, even though Europeans said it was ground floor *then* first floor. It was three flights of stairs, which meant fourth floor. 

Whatever. 

Cindy stopped at the top of the stairs, hands on her hips and trying not to make a lot of noise and failing miserably, her breathing hard. A door opened on the floor above her, someone coming out and down, and Cindy moved into action just to avoid the embarrassment of being seen like that. 

She pressed the button to be buzzed in. 

A pause.

"Hello?"

"Hi I'm here for the OSU students—"

"Come on in!"

A loud buzz, followed by the ancient and spooky sounding creak of the massive door. Cindy walked quickly through the short hallway and into the classroom, trying to be sneaky, which of course meant her sneakers squeaked and everyone in the program turned to look at her as she entered. There was a strange woman standing at the front of the classroom with a book, which meant there was a guest speaker, which meant Cindy was late in front of one more extra person. 

See, this was why she always skipped class. She *hated* being late. At least if she skipped class no one could look at her. 

Anne gave her a raised eyebrow as Cindy squeezed into a seat, feeling sweaty. Cindy waved. Anne snorted.

The guest speaker was talking about ghosts. She was a stout, middle aged white woman, with frizzy greying hair and big red glasses. She looked like everything Cindy aspired to be when she grew old. 

Wait, no, not ghosts. She was talking about Burke and Hare. The serial killers.

"What went through the minds of those unfortunate men and woman in those dark tunnels? What unknown horrors did these men commit between the two of them? And worse, how many souls were lost that we have no record of?"

The story went that the two men, Brendan Burke and William Hare, had killed at least 17 people in order to sell their bodies to medical students. They used to be grave robbers, see, but that turned out to be full of too many risks. 

Besides, the doctors they sold all the bodies to? They wanted them to be fresh. Better for collecting information.

Cindy had seen a notebook made out of Burke's skin at the Surgeon's Museum the other day. Which, to be fair, was *not* the worst thing in the museum. Cindy frowned, recounting the way the leather notebook had looked. Then she grimaced, because she remembered there was a shriveled up brain tumor, like, *right* down the aisle that was *way* grosser. 

"Does that have any relation to Brodie?" someone was asking. 

"Oh, *he* never killed anyone, technically." the guest speaker replied, "He just built cabinets for them then broke in at night and stole them for all they were worth."

The class giggled. 

"But think about it," the woman continued, "You're alone down there, with total strangers. It's dark. Then someone shoved their fingers down your throat and you choke on your own bile. It's a horrifying thought, isn't it?"

Wait, what? How much did she miss?


	2. pls keep track of your keys

"So like, what was up with the whole bile thing?"

"What?"

Cindy and two of her other flatmates were huddled around a small table in the corner of a hole in the wall restaurant named Pie for Breakfast. It was their second time being there that week. 

"You know," Cindy, holding onto a small personal meat pie, lifted her pinkies and wiggled them around, "The whole, 'I'm gonna shove my fingers down your throat until you choke on your own bile.'"

"Yeah, that was creepy." Anne said. 

"That was how they killed them." Shana said, twisting one of her many ear piercings, "They preyed on drunk people. They'd make them throw up them cover their mouth so they choked. No signs of foul play, technically."

"Ew," Cindy said, looking down at her pie and frowning. She suddenly didn't feel like eating. All the same she took another bite. 

Anne wiped her mouth and asked, concerned, "Does it seem like Scotland has a lot of serial killers to you?"

"To be fair," Shana raised her voice in a grandiose manner, "We're not any better."

"Yeah, but in *Ohio*?"

"Oh, people get plenty weird in Ohio." Cindy said. 

"Weird enough for murder?" Anna was skeptical. 

"Weird enough for ghosts," Cindy joked, thinking of the Mansfield Reformatory in... was in the Northeast of the state? She'd never been there, but she knew it was close to her hometown of Cleveland. Some kids went there for a field trip in High School and said it was *super* haunted. 

"You got a point," Shana agreed. 

"Yeah, but they *imported* those ghosts." Anne defended. 

There was a pause. 

Cindy scratched her chin, "We have presidents? No, astronauts. It was astronauts."

"Seriously?" 

"Yeah! Someone told a bad joke that was like, 'ha ha, what makes people want to get out of Ohio so bad.'"

"Probably the ghosts." 

The girls laughed, continuing to chat and talk over their pies until they were done, after which they wandered back over to the student flats, and made plans to meet up later, maybe. They were inside when Cindy saw the door to her room and suddenly swore. 

There were, in total, three keys given to each girl. One for the building, then one for the individual flat they all lived in, then one for the room they were assigned. Cindy had gotten past the first two because the girls still had their keys, but...

The other two looked at her in confusion. 

"I locked myself out." she whined as way of explanation. 

"*Oh,*" Anne said in sympathy, patting the other girl on the back. 

"Who do I call for that again? Is it the university?"

"Maybe try the office by the laundry room?" Anne offered. 

"You think someone'll be there?" Cindy asked. Shana shook her head, looking dubious. 

"Ring if you need to come back, we'll let you in. You can always sleep on the couch."

Cindy made her way across the courtyard and to the front of the building, scratching the back of her neck absentmindedly. 

She reeeeally didn't like talking to strangers. If she was with other people, she didn't mind as much, but alone? It gave her an adrenaline rush every time. She was trying to get better with it, honest, but. She still had a ways to go before she could sleep, as the saying went (okay, *probably* how it went).

She stopped before the closed door to the building office, bouncing on her heels and trying to psych herself up. She struck a pose, just to try and feel empowered, before remembering there were windows and someone could just walk over and see her dabbing in public. She stopped.

Cindy knocked, two short raps that got swallowed up by the thick wood of the door.

She waited for a response. 

She hesitated for a second then knocked again, three times. 

"Hello?" she said to herself. 

Then suddenly the door opened and Cindy was looking at a bowtie. She looked up. 

The 11th Doctor stared back. 

Cindy shrieked in surprise. The Doctor yelled back at her, startled. He closed the door. 

Cindy stood there in the silence, wide eyed and shaking. She turned around, looking around. 

...Things *seemed* normal. But. 

She turned back to the door. She knocked again, and didn't stop until the door opened again. 

"Are you going to scream at me again?" the Doctor asked. 

"What?" she blinked, "I didn't *scream* at you, I— I—" 

She furiously tried to think of the right word and couldn't, so she settled on being descriptive. 

"I yelled *'*ahh!'"

"'Aaaah?'" 

"I— No, not that long. Just 'ahh,'"

"Aaaah?" 

"Wh—" Cindy waved both hands in the air, *"*You yelled at *me*!"

"Well you did it first!" the Doctor replied. 

"I don't—" she stopped. She was talking to the Doctor. You know, *Doctor Who*? 

She knew this was Scotland but this was ridiculous. 

"I'm locked out of my apartment— flat. I'm locked out of my flat." Cindy said. 

The Doctor looked at her, and Cindy elaborated, "Do you have keys?" 

"Oh!" realization dawned on his face. Then he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out an honest to God sonic screwdriver. 

Oh my god, this was either the best cosplayer ever or she was going nuts. 

But he went, "Which flat?" and, for some reason, Cindy turned around and led the way. And he unlocked not one, not two, but *all three* doors with his sonic screwdriver, which *actually* worked. 

The Doctor, trying to look serious, said, "Be more careful next time." 

Then he waved his screwdriver as a means to saw goodbye and was gone. 

Cindy stood in her room, staring at the door. She listened to the flat door open and close. She set her backpack down by the wall, realized she'd forgotten to unplug her travel straightening iron earlier, then—

"Wait, wait, wait wait wait—" Cindy ran out of the room, ran back in to grab her keys, then ran out again, "Wait wait wait wait—" 

The seagulls swooped overhead and no one answered the door this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let's get this bread


	3. i think you have a rat problem

Cindy threw back a shot of rum and gagged. 

"You didn't even drink the whole thing!" Anne cried, and finished Cindy's shot for her. 

Cindy didn't normally drink. She thought it was largely a gross tasting pastime that she personally didn't think was very fun. She didn't even do it very much at school *normally*. But, in Scotland, she was of legal drinking age, which meant she could be reckless. 

Also, she got really bored at clubs, and being tipsy made it a little more fun. 

And with that, the minor crowd of study abroad students went out on the town. 

They rarely did things as one big group, really. There were simply too many of them to fit into one booth at a restaurant (they'd tried). There was also the fact that not all of them got along. Anne didn't like Samantha, Katherine didn't talk to anyone except Miranda, and no one liked Josh (that would have been unfortunate all for the fact that Josh was a largely unlikable).

But the night was young and they were full of youthful laissez-faire. Also Corrina found out the local Tesco's was having a sale. It was on baking good, but that was besides the point. 

Cindy slid into an open booth, followed by Anne followed by Shana, and they all giggled at being crammed in together. Neon lights played off of Cindy's glasses and she wrinkled her nose, feeling silly. 

Then she remembered she couldn't hear for crap in a club. 

They *tried* to talk, before giving up and ordering tequila shots at the bar (Shanna finished Cindy's this time). Crowds were just beginning to form, people finally getting the guts to dance. Cindy decided she wanted earrings, so pulled out her phone and downloaded several shopping apps, swiping through quickly. 

"*Those are cute!"* Shana yelled, referring to a pair with giant cacti on them. 

"*Hell yeah!"* Cindy yelled back. 

Shana and Anne went to dance, dragging Cindy with them. You know, for being a little tipsy, she felt surprisingly clear headed. Even while dancing, she started to think about what had happened earlier. That was like, totally the Doctor. *Toootally*. And he was probably real and on adventures here in Scotland. It made sense, she was in Britain, it was a small place. Also, he had a TARDIS, so there. 

Shana grabbed Cindy's arm and spun her around and suddenly—

She was on the floor. 

"*Are you okay!"* Shana asked, concerned, but all Cindy could do was laugh as hard as she could. 

-

It was a little quieter in the bathroom. The walls were covered in bright graffiti style art, vibrant and wonderful. Cindy washed her hands quickly, leaning against the counter and feeling a little off balanced. It didn't really hurt that she'd fallen. It was probably the alcohol. Which, she had to say, was pretty convenient. Of course, it was probably the alcohol that made her want to wobble over, but that was also fun. 

She should go back to the flat and write something! Like a story about the Doctor. She had a *Doctor Who* fanfiction that was 'technically' in progress, but she hadn't updated it since finals the semester before. She could write it here, in Edinburgh! They even had police boxes here, it would be perfect!

Cindy exited the bathroom and saw a tall man in tweed out of the corner of her eye. Or, like, a man who was *definitely* the Doctor. Cindy immediately turned and walked after him. 

She followed him down a flight of steps into a much quieter part of the club. There was some graffiti here, but not much, and it looked haphazard, like people had maybe snuck down here to do it. Cindy kind of wished she had spray paint. 

Wait, where did he go? She stopped, pausing as she entered a double doorway and what appeared to be a boiler room. It reminded her of the end of the movie *Heathers*. She hoped she didn't have to stop a bomb or anything.

Suddenly a little nervous, Cindy leaned forward and crept along slowly. 

"Doctor?" she whispered, "Doctor?" 

There wasn't any movement. She hoped she hadn't lost him. 

She saw a shadow move and picked up the pace, following swiftly. It looked... smaller, for one thing. Kinda like a little rat. Maybe it was his shoes?

No, but that didn't make any sense...

Cindy stopped. She bit her lip. 

"Doctor?" she called again, still whispering. 

There was a scrambling behind her, the creak of metal. There was, certainly, a little rat on the floor. 

Well... kind of. 

It was. It was rat *shaped,* certainly, and brown with fur all over. But its ears were big, twitching wildly, and its eyes were shiny and glistening. Its tail, which was supposed to be naked, as all rat tails were, was also furry, and ticker than normal. It stretched back, up into the rafters, and Cindy craned her head to follow the path it took.

And choked on her breath. 

The rat tail — *it's not a rat it's not a rat —* was connected to a naked, startlingly hairless mass of limbs and flesh. Long arms reached around to hold onto the rafters and to press against the ceiling, but others lay connected still, writhing and unused. There were hands, and feet, and— *oh my god oh my god* — it was a human face, but *not*, because where the neck should have been it was connected to the ragged flesh of whatever being this was. The face was crying, tears streaming down its face. One fell on Cindy's cheek, and she flinched. 

The creature — *oh my god oh my god*— reached down, moving very deliberately onto the top of a boiler, and the metal creaked under the weight. Its arms came out, slow and careful, reminding Cindy of a spider, and it got close and everything about it seemed *wrong* and—

Something tackled Cindy with all the force of a linebacker, picking her up and throwing her over a pointy shoulder. Suddenly she was moving steadily and quickly away from the— the— whatever that thing was *oh my god it was moving after them*.

"Oh my God!" Cindy yelled, and the man who had her over her shoulder shouted back, 

"Don't look at it!" 

Cindy slapped her hands over her eyes before instantly regretting it and peeking. She swore very loudly and with great fluency. 

The man— person— Time Lord— it was the Doctor, alright— moved very quickly, Cindy could tell because of way the room moved around them, but the thing— monster— giant flesh-bag— was *also* moving fast, and—

Because the Doctor was very tall and Cindy was *also* rather tall, somewhat lanky, she slammed her head on the doorframe as they passed and let out a grunt. 

"Sorry!" the Doctor shouted, taking the steps two at a time. Without stopping he sonicked the fire alarm. It's alarm cut through the music like a knife, and followed by it, screaming. 

Cindy closed her eyes, opened them again, closed them, opened them. She ducked down in case they came across any doors again, and was right to do so, because they burst into the chilly night air. 

The door closed and the monster howled. It sounded like wailing. 

The Doctor set Cindy down by a wall, leaning her against it. He sonicked her, and she flinched, the light and noise made it suddenly apparent how much her head hurt. 

"Sorry," the Doctor noticed and said, before running off. Cindy tried to grab his arm but was too slow. 

Her vision swam. She slid slowly to the ground. Where were they, an alley? That was fine. She pressed a hand to the back of her head and turned and saw the TARDIS. 

....Maybe it was because she was sitting on the ground, but. That girl was *big*. 

The Doctor ran out, carrying a long white tube with a long cord attached to it. Cindy grabbed his leg when he passed, nearly causing him to trip. 

"Wait!"

"What!"

"My friends are in there!" was all she could think to say. 

"Yes! I know! There's also a monster in there!" was all he said. He tried to walk away again, but Cindy tugged on his pant leg.

"But— What—"

The Doctor pulled free and ran back into the building. 

"Doc— Doctor!" She yelled after him. 

Cindy heard the screams and raised voices from people on the other side of the building. She tried to stand up, but her vision went all weird. She slumped back down again and waited for it to clear. 

For some reason all Cindy could think about was her camera. If she could have gotten a picture of that thing. Whatever it was. But what would she do with it, sell it to the news? A crazy conspiracy website? Hmm, maybe then she could get a check for it. Buy a *new* camera. A nice mirrorless one. 

Wait, there was the Doctor. His face appeared in the darkness, frowning. It looked to the right, then back at her, still frowning. 

It took Cindy a second to realize she was waking up. 

She was warm. Her head didn't hurt. Her vision cleared and she was looking at the Doctor, and the Doctor was looking at her. 

"Do I know you?" the Doctor asked, and Cindy went, very quietly inside her mind—

Yikes!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> true story, i got drunk in scotland and just. spent the whole time falling over and shopping for earrings online. and i STILL went home early because i was bored! it was really fun


	4. i ain't callin you a truther

Cindy stared at the Doctor. The Doctor stared back, rather patient.

...Well. 

"Do I know you?" Cindy asked, voice squeaking. 

"You seem to know me." the Doctor replied. 

Cindy looked around, looking for an escape. She was in a large, white room. She was on a hospital bed, probably, she could tell by the other futuristic beds next to them. She— she didn't know what to *say*. 

Like, look. She'd thought about this before. About meeting the *Doctor* before. And thought about how maybe, he'd be nice! But probably not. He'd probably freak out and think she (or someone else in her situation) was some anomaly. Bad luck was prominent in the *Doctor Who* Universe. What if he didn't like it? What if he got mad?

Cindy couldn't stand authority figures being mad at her. 

Her mind moved fast, "Do I? Uhm, okay. Like, we met at the one time, at the, uhm, California?" she drew out the word real long, like she was unsure. 

The Doctor looked at her, rather unimpressed this time. 

"California?" he finally asked. 

"Yeah, with, the, uh, the ju— jud— juju. Bad juju." 

"*Bad juju*?" 

"You know!" she was absolutely making this up now, but it would be too embarrassing to turn back now, "You know that doll and the— it had red spots on its cheek? Well, it was like, one of those ventriloquist dolls. It was haunted."

His nonexistent eyebrows shot up.

"Well not haunted, really, it was an alien, but. I still stand by the fact that it was haunted, because there's no way a ventriloquist doll can have bad juju— can't *not* have bad juju..." she suddenly perked up, "You were different! You had spiky hair!"

Now he looked unsure (this was good this could work in her favor). The Doctor ran a hand through his hair, as if remembering something from long ago. 

"You're from my past? Wait—" He stood and began to pace, "That doesn't make any sense, how could that be, there can't be *two* of me."

Cindy moved very slowly, like she was trying not to spook a scared cat. Silently, she sat up. She was still wearing her jeans and clubbing shirt (it just had a triangle cut out in the back, but she'd bought it special for clubbing). Delicately, she touched the back of her head. It wasn't tender, but she scratched, and found dried blood under her nails. 

"How can you know me when we're not trans-dimensional beings?" the Doctor was still talking to himself.

"What if you don't know everything?" Cindy muttered.

"What?" he looked at her sharply.

"What?" she stared blankly at him.

"I said, what?"

"What?"

The Doctor threw his hands up in the air and walked over to a large wall monitor, pulling it aside to swipe at things on the screen rapidly. 

"It *says* you're human, but you have— wait."

The Doctor turned to look at Cindy very critically. Cindy tried to look very innocent, but just succeeded in jittering side to side randomly.

"Where did you say we met again?" 

"California." the lie came easier this time. She'd never even *been* to California. 

"Where *in* California?"

"Uhm— Los Ang- LA? Sacramento. Definitely Sacramento."

The Doctor looked unimpressed again, "That was a lie. You're lying."

"No I'm not!" She insisted.

"I would of remembered that." He said, looking sure of himself. Then he faltered, looking at the screen. "But it couldn't have been *me."*

Cindy thought she knew what he was talking about. She'd read in a fanfiction once that the Doctor didn't believe in Time Lords having dimensional doubles. Which, quite frankly, Cindy thought was total hoopla, because she was a firm believer in the multiverse theory, and also Time Lords were too... Time Lord-y to be the only ones without any body doubles out there. 

But also she couldn't *tell* him that, because she'd also read in fanfiction that he *totally* didn't believe his life could be a TV show. 

And also there was a slight chance she still could have been hallucinating and hallucinations generally disliked being called hallucinations. 

Oh God, what if she *was* hallucinating? 

"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked, taking note of the definite downturn in Cindy's demeanor. 

"I think I'm hallucinating." 

"*What?"*

A common trick to discern if you were in a dream or not was to look at a screen. If you could see it, it was real. If you couldn't, it was fake. Cindy hopped off the exam table and looked around at the screen the Doctor was looking at and frowned.

"I can't read this," she said to him, very seriously. 

"Who *are* you?" he stressed the question.

"But Doctor, you *know me*!" she stressed right back. 

The Doctor threw his hands up in the air for a second time. He ran a hand through his hair, ruffled it up good, then turned back and gently pushed Cindy back onto the bed. 

"Okay, uhm, let's get one thing straight," he started, "I'm not who you think I am."

Cindy folded her hands together and looked at him attentively. 

"Well, sort of. Kind of. I'm— Okay, if you know me, how much *do* you know? Well, okay— wait." While he had been pacing up until this point, he stopped. "This is Scotland."

"Yes."

"How come you're in Scotland if I met you in California?"

"I flew?" You know, on a plane?

The Doctor looked at her blankly, and she offered more, nodding sagely, "It was a very sweaty affair."

"Sweaty? No!" the Doctor went back to pacing, "But it still doesn't make sense!"

Okay, this was getting old. She just— okay, if this was a hallucination, what if she just left? Just... walked away from the hallucination. 

Cindy reached into her pocket for her flat keys and— "Oh my god! My *roommates*!"

"What?" 

She hopped off the bed again, and then it was her turn to pace. "Are they okay? There was— there was that *thing*? What if— what if it *ate* them, or—" she turned, "You need to drop me back off my flat! The dorms! The student dorms! Or— or the club? The castle? Cowgate? *Literally* anywhere except Australia!" 

"Okay, calm down." the Doctor said.

"Calm down!" 

"Yes! It wouldn't have eaten them." he said, very calmly. 

She instantly relaxed. 

"It would have absorbed them." he said, just as calmly.

"OH THAT IS SO MUCH WORSE!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im serious i flew alone for the first time and the flight was delayed which meant i would have missed my OTHER flight and. by god. i was sweating out of every orifice. it was so gross. and also i was crying and a child looked at me weird. it was a low point. 
> 
> cowgate is a street in edinburgh, it's where they used to sell cows back in the good old days.


End file.
